When You Reach Me
by FlagBear
Summary: In another world, it's Touya who does the chasing. Though not quite in the manner we expected. It's going to take a lot more than Go to woo this oblivious Hikaru. female!Hikaru. HikaruXMulti
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: A pretty useless and redundant tradition of fanfiction. But I'll go mainstream and just say I don't own Hikaru no Go.

This is my first fanfiction and I hope that it meets the expectations of readers. I've always admired the Hikaru no Go community for being so small, yet so high quality. I decided that it was the best fandom to write my first story in and here I am. I'm only 14 so please don't expect too much and be wary of mistakes.  
I don't plan to have Sai disappear as early as it happened in the manga. In case you didn't read the summary, this IS a female!Hikaru and HikaAki story.

Constructive criticism and reviews are appreciated. If you feel as though you have a lot of the former, then you could make a great Beta. If this is the case, feel free to contact me as I would really appreciate a beta.

Chapter 1

"Congratulations, ma'am. It's a girl. The nurse handed the new mother her daughter.

"Hikaru…I want to name her Hikaru.

Shindou Heihachi stared at his granddaughter as though she had grown another head.

"If I give you this Goban, you'll just pawn it off like all the other things you've taken from my shed, won't you?" he inquired. Long ago, he had tried to show his granddaughter his favorite game but she had paid no attention, so why the sudden interest?

"Of course not! I am genuinely interested in this Goban and want to play uhh…"

Next to her, Sai supplied "I already told you this earlier, HIkaru! The game is called Go in Japan and is also sometimes referred to as igo! That's also where the name Goban originated from and-"

"…Go! I want to play Go grandpa!" she ended, suddenly cutting Sai off. Sai immediately started going off on how rude it was to interrupt someone who was speaking. Hikaru ignored him.

Heihachi stared at her with skeptical eyes. It was hard to believe that his blond-banged, delinquent granddaughter had taken a sudden interest in Go. In fact, it was almost impossible to believe it. "Where did this come from all of a sudden?"

"Well you see," Hikaru thought about what to say, "It's almost as though a spirit has suddenly taken over my body and has an intense desire to play go. I feel as though if I don't play Go right away, I'll be sick, or I might faint, or maybe I'll even DIE!" Hikaru had never been too good at lying, so she decided to stick as close to the truth as possible. Plus, a little exaggeration had never hurt anyone.

If anything, Heihachi was suddenly even more skeptical of his granddaughter after her little speech. "Well if what you're saying is true, then why don't we play a game right now?" he offered. "If you impress me then you can have the Goban."

"You're on Grandpa!" she responded enthusiastically.

"Alright then bring the Goban inside and set it to the side for now. I have a different Goban we can play on right now, one that isn't so dusty." He gestured at the Goban and started walking back towards the house at a steady pace.

Hikaru lifted the fairly heavy Goban and followed her grandfather, albeit at a slower pace with the heavy weight in her slender hands. "Are you sure you can beat my grandfather, Sai? He's won multiple amateur tournaments in the city. Besides, you probably haven't played in a long time, so won't your skills be pretty rusty?" She whispered to Sai.

"Hikaru, I am confident in my skills and highly doubt that your grandfather will be too much of a challenge. Back in my day, I taught the emperor himself how to play go. Only 100 years ago BLAHBLAH BLEGHBLAH…" Sai continued to ramble. Hikaru wasn't too sure about all this. This ghost insisted that he was a master at the game, but only time would tell Hikaru supposed.

Hikaru tuned him out and decided to reflect on what had happened in the past hour. So she had found a Goban with a bloodstain in her grandfather's shack full of antiques. Said Goban turned out to be the resting place of a centuries old Ghost that loved Go. Said Ghost had demanded that Hikaru take the Goban with her due to how sentimental it was to him. Now Hikaru was about to play her grandfather, the amateur champion, in a game over the Goban. All Hikaru had wanted when she came to her Grandfather's was to make a bit of money so she could go shopping with her friends next week. There go those plans.

At last arrived in the kitchen and set the Goban down on the table. She then strode into the room where her grandfather kept his prized Kaya Goban and took a seat across from where Heihachi was already seated.

"Alright gramps, get ready to be beaten!" She declared arrogantly. 'Sai, you better win this,' she thought.

"Hmph. You're overconfident, young lady. I bet your mother has been spoiling you again. In fact, why don't you place a few stones, Hikaru? In case you haven't forgotten. I'm the amateur champion here." He wasn't too pleased with Hikaru's overconfident attitude. He would teach her to underestimate the amateur champion.

'Place stones?' Hikaru glanced at Sai in confusion. "Basically, placing stones is a handicap for when more experienced players play against less skilled players. But I won't need a handicap against your grandfather." Sai took out his fan and looked intensely at Heihachi.

"I don't need to place any stones, grandpa! Let's just play."

"Hmph. Suit yourself then, Hikaru. Let's Nigiri!" He exclaimed.

Once again, Hikaru looked to Sai for an explanation. Sai gladly explained. "Nigiri is a method to decide who will play black and who will play white. Your grandfather is grabbing a handful of white stones. You need to guess whether the amount he grabbed was odd or even by placing one or two black stones on the board. If you are correct, then you play black."

'Alright, this sounds simple enough.' Hikaru placed one black stone on the board and was rewarded with the black stones. Sai quickly pointed his fan to his opening move. Hikaru fumbled with one of the small, black stones for a moment, before picking it up with three fingers and placing it on 2,3. The game was on.

"Thank you very much for the game!" Sai bowed his head as tears streamed down his face at the joy of being reunited with go. Hikaru stared at Sai in wonder. Could playing this game really bring that much joy to him?

Shindou Heihachi breathed out a sigh of relief. It would have been humiliating to have lost to his granddaughter who had probably only started playing the game a few weeks ago, at most. He had won by only 3.5 moku, so the outcome was still rather embarrassing. The whole time he had felt as though Hikaru was playing was playing shidogo with him, but apparently that wasn't so since he won.

"Grandpa, I won right? Can I take the Goban now?" Hikaru asked; as having won a game against a man who had been playing go for numerous years was a normal occurence.

He chuckled at her attitude. "Hikaru it's customary for the players to thank each other for the game and hold a discussion afterwards, but I suppose you're in a hurry to get home. Furthermore, I won the game by 3.5 moku."

".5? How did you get .5 moku?" She hadn't realized that you could have half a moku from what she had observed of the game. Sai shared her sentiments. "Hikaru I am certain that I won by 2 moku! Ask your grandfather to count again!"

He chuckled once again. "You must have started learning the game only very recently to not know what the Komi rule is." He grimaced at the reminder that Hikaru was a rookie to the game, and yet, had given him trouble. Maybe it was time for him to start visiting go salons again. "White is given an extra 5.5 moku due to the advantage black receives by going first. Regardless, I was still very impressed by your skill so you can take the Goban with you."

"Phew. Thanks grandpa! I'll be sure to visit again soon!" She said happily as she hauled the enchanted Goban into her arms once more and started on her way out, leaving Shindou Heihachi to ponder about her newfound skill.

At home, nice and snug in the tank top and shorts she wore to sleep, Hikaru polished the newest addition to her bedroom, her Goban. "How can you wear such scandalous clothing, Hikaru! Such clothing would've never been befitting of a woman in my day." Sai reprimanded.

"I'm going to sleep soon! It doesn't matter how short my shorts are when I go to sleep!" she responded. Also, I still can't believe you lost, despite gloating about teaching emperors and holding titles!" she reprimanded.

"Well I was playing shidogo with your grandfather; I was going easy on him. It's a pity that we couldn't have held an after game discussion. And it's not my fault I didn't know about the Komi rule, Hikaruuu! It didn't exist the last time I was alive. Please forgive me!" He pouted.

His last sentence reminded Hikaru of her predicament. "I still can't believe I'm talking to a ghost. A go obsessed ghost nonetheless."

"Hikaruuu! What's wrong with liking go?" He whined

Hikaru sighed and decided to change the subject. "What do you like so much about that board game, anyways? It's so confusing and I don't understand the rules."

Sai fell silent for a few moments and a serene face appeared on him. "Go is a lovely game and I have devoted my life to mastering it. I can understand why someone who is unaccustomed to it would dislike it. If you want to learn more about it then I would be glad to teach you, Hikaru."

Hikaru tilted her head in curiosity and stopped polishing the board. "Well I have time to spare, could you tell me more about 'territory', then?"

Sai smiled exuberantly and started off on a rant. "We should start off on the basics. As you probably already noticed, it's a 19x19 board, except for boards they use for beginners that are 13x13 or 9x9, and…"

And so the seed of a great player was planted.

Words: 1,603


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Hikaru no Go.

Okay I've secured myself a beta and some good advice in the form of reviews. I didn't even realize I didn't have lines to show time skips. Uploading to FF must have gotten rid of them. I'm not going to go back and change it, but I won't make the same mistake twice. Thank you to all reviewers and people who favorited or are following my story.

Chapter 2

The next day was filled with Sai's incessant begging. She had listened to his begs through all her classes, and had progressively gotten more annoyed through the day. After school, finally arriving in her bedroom, Hikaru caved in. "Alright! I'll try to find a go salon if you quit bugging me, Sai!"

"Yay! Hikaru you're so understanding and generous. Can we go right now, Hikaru? " Sai leaped around in joy at getting another opportunity to play Go.

"Yea, sure, just let me get dressed." She replied. She ran a comb through her shoulder length hair to do away with any knots. After quickly rummaging through her closet full of clothing, she eventually pulled out an outfit. Hikaru went into the closet, changed out of her school uniform and into a t-shirt with the number 5 on them and a pair of shorts, then came out and sat down at her computer.

"HIkaru! What on the world are you wearing? You don't even _look_ like a woman. All you need now is a hat and people will mistake you for a young man!" Sai cried in hysterics at Hikaru's outfit.

Hikaru rolled her eyes and grabbed her cap, doing exactly what Sai had feared.

"Woah…Hikaru! What is this magical box? Why is it lighting up? How are you doing that?" Sai shot off question after question. Meanwhile, Hikaru was turning on her computer and bringing up the internet.

"Calm down Sai. This 'magical box' is what people call a computer. I got it for my last birthday, so I can chat with my friends online. It lets you to connect with different people all over the world and see new things. I'm just trying to find a nearby Go salon that we could check out." After a few seconds of scrolling through possible places, and Sai watching in amazement, she found one that seemed close by. "How about this one, Sai? It's called the 'Touya Go Salon'."

"Anywhere is fine Hikaru, as long as they have Go there!" Sai was already rushing through the door, literally.

Hikaru printed out a quick draft of the directions to the salon and grabbed her jacket. Sai, however, had popped his head to back in and was watching the printer work its magic with a look of terror on his face. "H-Hikaru! Your box is moving!"

"It's nothing, Sai." She reassured him. As she tugged on her jacket, Sai tailed her out of her room, glancing once more at the machine that had just been vibrating. Hikaru continued, "More importantly, don't you find it odd, walking through walls and doors?"

"Not at all, Hikaru. I'm a ghost, so it's not like I can open the door, after all. I just have to go through it." Sai was trying to rush her along with wide hand gestures and words. Now that Sai remembered where they were headed, he had completely forgotten about the printer. Once they were through the front door, Hikaru pulled the directions out of her pocket.

"Aright. If I'm any good at following directions, then it's this way!" She pointed down one end of the street. "Let's go, Sai!" The walk to the salon was very peaceful, with Sai telling Hikaru about his interests, apart from go, that is. Everything was going well until a rude, smelly teenager, probably older than Hikaru by a few years, ran into her.

"Watch where you're going, kid!" He yelled at her.

"You ran into _me_, jerk!" Hikaru was seething mad already. She was fairly well known among her friends for her temper.

"I'd be careful about what I was saying if I were you. You could easily get hurt."

"Are you threatening me?" If she was mad before, then she was furious now. Sai, too, was appalled by the audacity of this boy. "How dare this boy threaten you, Hikaru? This boy deserves a good, old-fashioned beating, to treat a woman like this." Then it occurred to Sai that Hikaru looked nothing like a woman at the moment.

"And what are you going to do about it?" He sneered. To emphasize his point he gave Hikaru a quick shove, making her stumble back a few paces, and her hat fell off. The boy was agape in surprise at the newly unveiled female. Just when Hikaru was ready to pounce on the guy, a voice shouted out from across the street.

"HEY! What are you doing to her, you loser?" A guy with unruly red hair was the source of the sound, and he was quickly making his way over to where they were.

"Oh shit! It's Tetsuo." The guy muttered before he ran off with his tail between his legs.

Once the guy made it across the street, he immediately asked if anything was wrong. "I had it under control. That guy was just a rude jerk with all bark, and no bite. Thanks for the help, though." She flashed him a smile. Sai also thanked him, but with a deep bow. "Why was he so scared of you?"

He slightly blushed at the sight of her smile. 'Damn, she's cute. Maybe I can pick her up.' "Heh. No problem, and I go to the same school as him. In fact, he was probably heading home, just like me. Let's just say I'm pretty infamous there. The name's Tetsuo Kaga. What's your name?" He asked, attempting to be as smooth as possible.

"My name is Shindou Hikaru. I was just on my way to the Touya Go Salon."

Kaga widened his eyes in disbelief, "A cute girl like you plays Go?" Then he knit his eyes together in a grimace at the name Touya. Kaga continued, "Let me give you some advice. That boring game Go isn't any fun. The Touya Go Salon is no good, either. There's this guy that is simply the spawn of Satan, and he spends a ton of his time there. He's arrogant, rude, and overconfident in his abilities. I absolutely detest him."

Now it was Hikaru's turn to be surprised. It was like a complete 180 in his attitude. Next to her, Sai seethed. "How dare he insult go? Hikaru I demand that you distance yourself from this boy!"

"Well that was pretty rude."

'Shit.' Kaga thought. 'I think I just blew my chances.' "I mean Go's not THAT bad. Why don't you try a game of Shougi though, I think it's muc-"

Hikaru had heard enough, and was already walking away.

'God dammit!' Kaga sulked.

-X-

Hikaru thought about where to go now. The Tetsuo guy had looked pretty serious when he said that the Touya Go Salon housed a demon. However, he had seemed pretty serious when he talked about the demon at the Touya Go Salon. Hikaru decided to disregard his advice, anyways.

-X-

"Hi, is this the Touya Go Salon?"

Harumi Ichikawa stared in amazement at the girl before her. It had been many weeks since she had seen a young girl in the salon, nonetheless a cute, young girl? "Yes, this is. You couldn't possibly be here to play Go could you?"

"Hehe. What else would I be here to do? My name is Hikaru Shindou, and I'm here to play Go. What should I do to get my first opponent?"

A cute, young girl in the Touya Go Salon, wanting to play go-Ichikawa simply couldn't wrap her mind around the concept. "Well, Shindou-san, first you need to sign up here and pay the entrance fee, actually it's been such a long time since I've seen someone like you here. How about I waive the fee just this once?" Perhaps if she offered this discount, the girl would come around more often. "As for people to play, there aren't many here that are around your age. Oh! It looks like old man Hurami is about to finish his game. Why don't you ask him once he's done? I'm sure he'd love the breath of fresh air playing someone younger gives." Ichikawa pointed to an old man sitting at a table nearby.

"Thanks! I'll go check it out." Hikaru strode to the table, with Sai following in turn.

"Ohhh! Look at all these people playing go, Hikaru! It's majestical." Sai took a quick look at the board and immediately saw the outcome. "Ne, Hikaru, look! Ichikawa was right. This game is about to end in White's favor. Black's will forfeit soon, I think."

Just as soon as Sai finished talking, the man opposite of old man Hurami surrendered. "I have lost."

Hurami gave a crinkly-eyed smile and said "It was a very good game." He then turned to HIkaru. "Can I help you young lady?"

He faintly reminded Hikaru of her grandfather, kind and elderly. "Would you like to play a game with me? I saw that you're pretty good. I think I'm pretty good myself," and flashed the man a grin.

"Is that so?" The man chuckled at the Hikaru's personality. "Well then take a seat and let's play a game." The man's opponent had already left for some refreshments so Hikaru took the seat across from him.

Hikaru eventually ended up with black and her opponent with white. Per Sai's instructions, she started in the upper right star. Her opponent placed a stone in the bottom right star. As more stones were placed, a crowd began to gather around the table.

-X-

Murmurs from the crowd were heard. "Amazing. The young girl has taken complete control of the center."

"Look. That stone just now has secured her the bottom left corner, also." Came another voice.

"Fools. Use some foresight. Can't you see she'll soon have control of the entire board?" Another round of murmurs rang out.

Hikaru puffed out her cheeks. "Would it kill these geezers to quit looking over my shoulder?" She mumbled.

"Hikaru!" Sai scolded, "There's just admiring you Go skills?"

"My Go skills? You're the one that's doing all the work here, Sai. Have I mentioned that according to the crowd around us, you're really good at this game?" she whispered.

Sai blushed and covered his face with his fan. "Years of practice, Hikaru."

As Hikaru placed another stone and gained another 4 moku, her opponent finally surrendered. "Aha. I should've surrendered long ago. You were completely out of my league. It's great to see youth like you playing this game." The old man praised.

"Thanks, sir. I told you I was pretty good didn't I?" She replied cheekily.

"Can I play her next?" Another old man's voice asked.

"What? I won against you by over 5 moku just a while ago. I should play her." Said a man with spectacles.

"Ughhh. No offense but is there anyone younger to play against around here?" Hikaru asked.

"Well Touya-meijin's son, Touya Akira is usually here, but not today." Supplied Hurami.

"Who's Touya-meijin?" asked Hikaru.

"You don't know who the meijin is? Why don't I explain titles to you over another match, Hikaru. Ask me anything you'd like?"

"Really? That sounds great!"

The crowd around them groaned. "Quit hogging her, Hurami!" One man grumbled.

"I found her first, didn't I? Go find your own cute, young prodigy." Hurami replied while Hikaru blushed at the compliments.

-X-

By the end of the day, Hikaru had learned about all the titles, and pro matches, and also played against numerous patrons of the salon.

"I'll be back again guys!" Hikaru yelled in leaving. A buzz of approval met her ears at the announcement.

"Make it soon and I'll waive the fee again," Ichikawa said. "All the old men in here really need some excitement in their lives nowadays. All they do is sit around and play go." She told Hikaru.

"We heard that!" Some men from the back shouted.

As Hikaru walked out the building with Sai behind her, she could imagine doing this for a long time. Having fun at Go Salons and chatting with the patrons there. Then her mind turned to what old man Hurami had told her.

"Hey Sai, what was it like being a pro?"

-X-X-X-

Okay so if anyone is wondering why Akira wasn't at the salon it's because Hikaru went to the salon a bit earlier than in the manga. In the manga he tries to appease Sai in all these other places first, but this Sai has got a computer. ^.~


End file.
